You can never guess what treasure might be hiding in the basement. It turns out that a 1917 image on an astronomical glass plate from the Carnegie Collection shows the first ever evidence of a planetary system outside our solar system.
You never know what treasure is hiding in the basement. It turns out that about a year ago, an astronomical glass plate from the Carnegie Collection was discovered to show the first ever evidence of a planetary system outside our solar system, without astronomers deciphering it. This unexpected finding was discovered during research for a scientific paper on planetary systems surrounding white dwarfs published in Astronomy Reviews.
About a year ago, the author of the review, Jay Farhi of University College London approached the director of the observatory, John Molchi, and asked him for permission to look at an astronomical plate in the archives containing the spectrum of Van Meenen's star, a white dwarf discovered by the Dutch-American astronomer Adrian Van Meenen in the same year the photograph was taken.
Spectra of this star is a decoding of the light emitted from distant stars in all the colors that make up the light. Like a rainbow out of a prism, and they can teach astronomers about the chemical composition of a star. They can also tell them how the light emitted by the star is affected by the chemistry of the objects it passes through before reaching us on Earth.
Astronomers used spectral images of stars to develop a star classification system that is still in use today. Modern astronomers use digital tools to decipher the spectrum, but for decades, photographic plates made of glass were used in which a section of the sky was photographed and the spectrum of the stars photographed in it was deciphered.
Farhi received the observation made by the director of the observatory on Mount Wilson which belonged to the Carnegie Institution at the time, Walter Adams. Apart from an inscription on the edge of the glass plate, Adams noted that the star appeared to be slightly hotter than our sun. Other than that, everything looks completely normal.
However, when Perry examined the spectrum, he found something rather unusual. The clue is in what are known as the absorption lines of the spectrum. The absorption lines indicate the "missing parts" in the areas where the light coming from the star passed through another object and part of the light at certain frequencies was absorbed by this material. These lines indicate the chemical composition of the object through which the light passes.
The 1917 glass spectrum of Van Meenen's star revealed the presence of heavy elements, such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, which should have sunk into the star's interior due to their weight.
Only in the last 12 years has it become clear to astronomers that Van Meenen's star and other white dwarfs that have heavy elements found in their spectrum indicate a type of planetary system that is also filled with remnants of planetary debris polluting its atmosphere. These systems, called "polluted white dwarfs" were a surprise to astronomers because white dwarfs are stars like our sun at the end of their lives, so it was not at all expected that the remnants of planetary material that surrounded them would survive until that stage.
"The fact that the astronomical calendar from our archive from 1917 contains evidence for the existence of a "contaminated white dwarf" is amazing." Molchi said. "The fact that the photograph was taken by one of the most prominent astronomers in our history - Walter Adams, adds to the excitement."
Anyway, this is a system of dead planets. No planets have yet been discovered that have survived and are still orbiting Van Meenen's star or similar systems, but Farhi believes that it is only a matter of time.
"The mechanism that creates the planetary debris rings, and the heavy materials in the star's atmosphere require the influence of the gravity of the full-fledged planets," he explained. "The process can't happen unless there are planets there."
"Carnegie has one of the world's largest collections of astronomical plates with an archive that includes approximately 250,000 plates from three different observatories: Mount Wilson, Plumer, and Las Campanes," Molchi concluded. "A lot of history sits in our basement and who knows what other finds we might discover in the future?"
14 תגובות
An interesting article about compulsive bothering for anyone interested:
http://ofer-megged.blogspot.co.il/2015/10/blog-post.html
What's wrong with you? Until there is one nice site on the net without trolls in talkbacks... come on, let it go
what are you kids awkward.
To Daniel
I thought you were different, unfortunately, no!
I feel sorry for your screwed up head, you're a moron
And don't ever say that I didn't try to straighten the generations
You are a poor man
Happy holiday to all the other commenters
Yehuda
Yodla
You are quite a fantasist. I feel sorry for you.
To Daniel
You called me a "yodella" so I will forgive you for your negative attitude
I'm flattered that a person with analytical skills like you has been following my comments for a long time but I'm sorry, I'm not a great cocktail expert. You say that I am mixing different fields of opinion that have nothing to do with each other. I would appreciate it if you could be more specific. Because apart from attacking my personality or behavior you do not consider my comments at all.
Regarding Newton and Einstein, I agree that it didn't come out of me, but Sabdarmish Yehuda already did and I'm proud of who I am, believe me that despite your opinion, I have nothing to be ashamed of.
Don't forget that this is just science
Yehuda
Dear Ariel
When I wrote "Kepler" in my response, I meant the "Kepler space telescope" and not a scientist who lived in the Middle Ages
https://www.hayadan.org.il/715-new-worlds-2702142
So the mistake is yours, so please don't go straight in the negative direction that Yehuda doesn't understand
Good day to you Ariel
Yehuda
Yodla
I have been following your comments on the site for a long time. Your responses to this article strengthen my feeling that you are a great cocktail expert. You mix different areas of opinion that have nothing to do with each other and the result is pathetic. A new Einstein or Newton did not come out of you. is not that a loss? I don't know who you are and what you do, but listen to a person who is watching from the side, so they don't make a caricature of you. Why be humiliated?
Yehuda, I'm afraid you don't understand something basic.
In Kepler's time, astronomers were sure that only six existed: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. All other stars were then considered to be Saturday stars. I have no idea what thousands of planets Kepler discovered. The only thing he discovered was Kepler's three laws and that too was based on observations made by Tycho Brahe.
דניאל
I did not mean that history is not a science. I meant that the achievement is not in the field of astronomy.
Miracles
History is a science, but its research methods are different from those of the exact sciences. As for Judah, notice what I wrote to him. He does not know and does not understand what comparative research is.
Yehuda
The achievement is historical, not scientific. This is an interesting article. Not good?
Daniella
Tell me what is the new thing we learned from the 1917 picture???... nothing!!, if you had checked the picture in 1950 and discovered the existence of a planet from it I would have said nice, you won, but today??, when Kepler discovered thousands of planets??, there is no There is no research here, and no scientific achievement.
That's my opinion
Yehuda
Yodla
Apparently you don't understand what is basic in scientific research. It is absolutely possible a situation where you take basic findings from previous years and compare them to what you know today and from that you learn what is new. This is called comparative research, a research method accepted in various fields of research. Can you tell the readers which books in the philosophy of science you read?
All this is actually just a curiosity. It did not advance science in 1917, and it does not advance science now. Testimony is considered, if it was given in time and in the scriptures. To come back and say: I found out first, it doesn't count. Reminds me of the religious who will say now that it is actually already written in the Talmud.
Yehuda